Life is good!

Finished block 11 of Avalon (figured there was no reason I couldn't go out of order!) last night.  Also finished up another improv block.  I think I like this one a little better.  I spent some time cutting up my scraps into smaller pieces to try and make the process got a little more smoothly.  Although at this rate it's going to be a really long time before this quilt is done!

I spent a LOT of time in my craft room this weekend, checked a lot of things off of my to-do list, finished several projects, and it felt so good!  I finished Comma Squares, and even got it boxed up and ready to send to Kelley.  She's going to use it in a fund raiser for her kids' preschool.  Her hubby is 100% Latvian, and all my nieces go to this Latvian preschool, so I'm happy to help out a bit.  I quilted it myself, just straight line quilting, but it was kind of fun.  I did a cross pattern in the center part, and echoed the lines on the border section.  The thread color was a bit of a question for me.  I ended up using this variegated orange/yellow thread on the back and in the colored sections, and black on black.  I was a little concerned about how it would look with bits of thread showing on the wrong side, but as long as you're not two inches away, I think it looks pretty nice.  And it was probably the only opportunity I'll have to use that thread.

I finally got started on the Avalon BOM quilt from the Fat Quarter Shop.  Hey, they haven't sent all 12 blocks (only 11) so far, so I'm not completely behind, am I??  Okay, yes, I am completely behind.  And I'm doing two squares from each this time; there should be plenty of fabric for that, and I'm thinking that the 2nd might be a good one to go to the Church Dinner this fall. And I got started on Fabulous Flowers.  I actually want to have Isadora help on this one.  It's a strata quilt, so just sewing together the strips would be good practice for her, and I can set up Collette's machine on the desk so she has one to work on. Recent Completions: Pick and Mix Heart of Mine 2 WIPs: Farmer's Wife (LONG term project! - 20 blocks completed) Craftsy QAYG quilt (three of twelve completed) Lucky Pezzy Impromtu- just needs borders Avalon BOM Fabulous Flowers Needs Binding Simply Woven Top Completed, waiting for quilting: H

Yes, there is a quilt in the background of my quilt photo! After putting the little one to bed last night, I went down to my craft room and decided it was time to get an actual FINISH.  As in a quilt, completely done, put that binding on, sew that label on and DONE!  And I did; what a happy feeling.  And this is undoubtedly my oldest UFO.  According to my database, this one was started in 2011.  One of the reasons for the delay was that it was just plain lost for a while.  I started it while I was staying with Mom and Dad.  I'd put it up for a bit while finding more fabric for it, and the darned thing vanished.  I found it last summer, in their machine storage shed.  Made no sense whatsoever, but there it was!  The shed had sustained some damage during a major storm, and all of us kids had come down to help clean up.  We were throwing all sorts of stuff out, and I came across a tote with a completely random assortment of things in it, including the bag with the quilt blocks.

During my nightly phone call with Marc, I mentioned that I was stretching myself a bit by doing some improvisational quilting.  I thought he was going to hurt himself laughing.  He had no idea how much there was to quilting (quilting novels? quilting cruises?) until I took up the hobby, so it's a continual education process.  Especially when I'm trying to explain why I need to save up more than $300 to replace my sewing machine.  Regardless, I was doing improvisational quilting last night.  I was making 'slabs', out of the Sunday Morning Quilts book.  It's VERY much a stretch for me.  But I keep trying to learn new things, and I want to get better at it, so practice it is!  I have a bunch of leftover Vintage Modern fabric from the FQS Mystery BOM, so I'm using that to make a scrap quilt.  Here is the first one: I'm not trilled with the results.  I think it's that there are a bunch of small pieces, and several large pieces, and not many medium ones

I finally got back into my craft room last night.  It wasn't for long enough, but at least it was something.  I think it's been a solid week since I've sewn a single stitch.  And it was nothing too exciting.  I pieced together a backing for the comma squares quilt, and started working on the backing for Ruby, Pearl and Opal.  The former is six large pieces left over, so it went together pretty quickly.  The latter is using leftover strings from the front.  It's going to be neat to have a row of them across the middle of the back, but it is certainly more time consuming than using a piece of 108" fabric!  But I figure pieced backings are a good way to use up the never-seems-to-get-smaller fabric stash, at least with some of those fabrics that I don't think would get used up otherwise. :)

Each year I make a quilt to donate to our church to be auctioned off at our fall festival.  I've done three so far, and plan to do them as long as I can.  I live in a small rural community, so I've gone more with traditional designs and fabrics, since I get the feeling they have the largest appeal.  I have a Kansas Troubles jelly roll in my stash.  It's been there for quite some time.  I picked it up when I was first starting to quilt, and it's just never called out to be used.  I think the Kansas Troubles fabrics are pretty, but they've just never been my "thing", so to speak.  But I think it would be good for this purpose, but I cannot for the life of me settle on a pattern.  Nothing seems right.  I'm wondering if I don't just put it back in the stash get get something out that really IS calling my name...

It's been two months (and more!) since I did a WIP list.  Since the point of these is to keep myself honest, I should really be better about it... :)  My "waiting for quilting" pile is getting a bit ridiculous, but my quilter just up and moved to Texas, so now I have to find another one.  Rosie was so reasonably priced and did a really good job, so it will be hard.  Recent Completions: Layer Cake Lemonade - top to charity Sketchbook - top to charity WIPs: Farmer's Wife (LONG term project! - 20 blocks completed) Craftsy QAYG quilt (three of twelve completed) Lucky Pezzy Impromtu- just needs borders Needs Binding Heart of Mine 2 Pick and Mix Simply Woven Top Completed, waiting for quilting: High Fashion Swoon Fat Quarter Shop BOM Ruby, Pearl and Opal Toes in the sand Comma Squares Mosaic Charmed Stars Planning: Avalon BOM quilt Secret Garden (layer cake quilt)

I just got mentioned in a blog post by Jo! http://www.joscountryjunction.com/charity-quilts-2/